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Hands Occupied

Colorful knitting, crochet, latch hook and macrame from craft book author & designer Heidi Gustad.

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Peppermint Party

December 19, 2012 Leave a Comment

Peppermint Party | HandsOccupied.com

I have been wanting to try my hand at a party theme post for a few months now and finally got up the guts to try it this week. Why peppermint? It’s pretty simple actually. My mom and I are both huge mint fans in general, and as I started sketching out a bunch of ideas for holiday parties, I just kept coming back and back and back to peppermint.

DIY & Decor

The streamers are red & white crepe paper twisted to look like peppermint. I made the pinwheels out of candy striped scrapbooking paper (grab the tutorial here), and I used wooden skewers and styrofoam balls hacksawed in half to display them, Candy Land-style on my table. As you can see, I also used a bag of peppermint candies to decorate my otherwise-bare tablescape.

The Food

Being a person with some blood sugar issues, I always have some kind of non-sugary snack at all parties I host. Usually, I just put out a bowl of nuts, but for this party, I had peppers on the brain. I made some hors d’oeurves with water crackers, cream cheese, and pepper slices arranged to look like peppermint swirl candies.

Peppermint Party | HandsOccupied.com

Drinks

I tried to come up with a tasty peppermint schnapps cocktail, but I realized I simply don’t like the kind of medicinal taste it makes me think of. My husband, in an effort to avoid trying my tenth attempt at a peppermint schnapps cocktail, pitched in on this one, making some peppermint tea syrup and designing a custom cocktail around it for my mini party. Here’s how he made the peppermint tea syrup, in his own words:

Make some tea. Put it in a [cooking] pot. Add one cup of sugar for each cup of tea. Put it on the burner until all the sugar dissolves, stirring occasionally to help the sugar blend. And that’s it.

Peppermint Party | HandsOccupied.com

Husband’s Custom Cocktail: The Candy Striper

ice

1 oz. peppermint tea syrup

1 oz. vodka

top with club soda

The peppermint tea syrup is quite sweet, so make sure to have plenty of club soda on hand to balance it out.

Peppermint Party | HandsOccupied.com

Desserts

What’s a holiday peppermint party without old school peppermint ice cream? To save time on the day of the party, I filled mini jelly jars with individual servings of peppermint ice cream and decorated each jar with red and white bakers twine the day before. This is probably my favorite idea from the whole shindig, imho.

Peppermint Party | HandsOccupied.com

I’m not the biggest fan of disposable dishware, so I opted to use the spoons I had on hand laid out next to the ice cream.
Peppermint Party | HandsOccupied.com

And I did end up putting my little fifth of peppermint schnapps to tasty use after all. Remember the peppermint schnapps swirl cupcakes from last week? I barely do, because husband and I ate them all in almost no time after I captured the pictures of this party. It turns out peppermint schnapps is best used as a peppermint extract alternative. Click here for the cupcake recipe, and here for info on substituting peppermint schnapps for peppermint extract.

Peppermint Schnapps Swirl Cupcakes | HandsOccupied.com

Filed Under: Christmas, Parties Tagged With: cocktail, cupcake, holiday, hors doeurves, ice cream, party, peppermint, peppermint tea syrup, recipes, snack table, swirl

About Heidi

Heidi Gustad is a craft book author & content creator in love with primary colors & vintage vibes. She specializes in knitting, crochet, latch hook and macramé, and her first book, Latch Hook: 12 Projects for the Modern Maker, is out now!

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Heidi Gustad from Hands Occupied / Craft Book Author and Knitting, Crochet, Latch Hook and Macrame Designer

Hi! I’m Heidi (she/her/hers), a craft book author & pattern designer specializing in knitting, crochet, latch hook & macrame. Really anything with yarn! ❤️  My work combines vintage and modern design elements, featuring bold colors and graphic motifs.

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Yarn craft designer & author. Into intarsia knits, latch hook, color & vintage-modern style.
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Heidi Gustad 🧶✂️
Sneaking in a few stitches in the shade. 😎 Sneaking in a few stitches in the shade. 😎
Another morning of filming! One of the knitting vi Another morning of filming! One of the knitting videos I’d like to release soon is a big overview of how to swatch and why - if you have any questions or favorite tips, let me know. 
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To be honest, I want to be able to link to this video as a resource when I get angry gauge questions, so please don’t hesitate to share your best tips. Together, we can tame the knitting Karens. 😆
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#stopswatchandblockit #handsoccupied #knitting #knittersofinstagram
A big issue I've had in the last year is putting t A big issue I've had in the last year is putting together new design work but not doing any independent releases of them. Chalk it up to anxiety, burn out, or whatever but here we are. 
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Last week I turned 35, so in honor of that here’s 3 things: 
❤️ a picture of me at my most stylish 
💛 a little glimpse at some of the design things I've recently been working on
💙a promise that I will be releasing some of the pictured designs this year. Getting back in the swing of things after taking it easy is hard 😆 - wish me luck!
Like a riding a bike! June guarded the neighborhoo Like a riding a bike! June guarded the neighborhood while I shot a new crochet tutorial today. With any luck, editing will go smoothly & I’ll be posting new videos to YouTube regularly soon! Got any requests for tutorial topics? 
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#handsoccupied #crochet #studiodog #crochettutorial
This yoke deserved a mid-blocking closeup, don’t This yoke deserved a mid-blocking closeup, don’t you think? ❤️💛💙
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Pattern: modified #soldotnacrop sweater / yarn: various from my stash
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